International Media Watch of news headlines and current affairs reports about Romania

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Romania aims to sell 4.7 bln lei in Sept debt

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Romania plans to sell 4.7 billion lei ($1.59 billion) worth of leu currency bills and bonds in September, more than the 2.6 billion lei it sold this month, the finance ministry said on Monday.

Debt managers have sold a little under 38 billion lei so far this year, and have tapped foreign markets for 1.5 billion euros in five-year euro debt.

Yields have been rising steadily across maturities at tenders in August, reflecting market concerns over the euro zone's debt woes, and thefinance ministry has sold less paper than planned and even rejected all bids for one-year treasury bills.

Traders have said they expected the surge in yields over the past month to be temporary.

In September, the ministry plans to sell 2.2 billion lei in one-year paper and two tenders for six- and nine-month paper seeking to sell a combined 900 million lei. It has also scheduled tenders for three-, five- and 10-year bonds seeking to raise a combined 1.6 billion lei. ($1 = 2.955 Romanian Lei) (Reporting by Sam Cage)